J Natl Med Assoc
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Health has improved in Cuba and China during the past quarter of a century. Some of the improvements in health occurred as economic conditions improved in both countries, but there are other similarities of health care delivery in China and Cuba. Collective activity plays an important role in health care in both nations; both do health planning centrally, but local communities control the daily activities of the health services that they use. Techniques that have improved health in underdeveloped nations might be applied in underserved areas of the United States.
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Fracture of the hip in black women is not a common injury. The cause of this decreased incidence is commonly stated to be the relative increase in density of the bones in black women as compared with whites. ⋯ We also studied the degree of kyphosis and found that this was increased over a control group. This study does not refute the lower incidence of hip fracture in black women but simply points out that when these fractures do occur, they occur in osteopenic bone.
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Historical Article
The invisible malady: sickle cell anemia in America, 1910-1970.
Though several articles have appeared on the history of sickle cell anemia in the United States, none has dealt with the dissemination of information from the scientific community to the public. It is an interesting commentary on our society that 60 years have passed before this important but racially oriented disease has reached the public forum. In this article, the author tries to describe the major events in the history of sickle cell anemia and to explain why it has not been publicized.
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Comparative Study
Is there a genetic basis for the differences in cancer incidence between Afro-Americans and Euro-Americans?
The data of the Third National Cancer Survey show for many cancer types, large differences in cancer incidence between Euro-Americans and Afro-Americans.(1) As in other racial studies, it is difficult to separate environmental and genetic factors. For the cancers which are more frequent among Afro-Americans, environmental factors seem to be primarily responsible. However, among the cancers less frequent in Afro-Americans, there are some for which the racial differences have a genetic basis. ⋯ For all these cancers, Afro-Americans are less susceptible. The only cancer to which Afro-Americans appear more susceptible on the basis of genetic makeup, is fibrosarcoma. This is in accord with the high frequency of keloids, a benign counterpart of fibrosarcoma in Afro-Americans.
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Historical Article
Substance abuse and America: historical perspective on the federal response to a social phenomenon.
Much more often than is commonly given credit, factors other than a substance's therapeutic efficacy contribute to its affect on the individual experience, its own proliferation, and society's response. To explore these dynamics, American history is examined from the perspective of analyzing the development of substance abuse. ⋯ The health professions have not always exhibited behavior in the interest of public health, and, most importantly, the federal response has often been plagued with outcomes that have been less desirable than many of the problems. This historical review supports the thesis that drug-seeking behavior and the response it elicits are in a constant state of flux and cannot be adequately appreciated in isolation from the sociocultural and historical contexts in which they occur.